Understanding Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Treatment
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic condition that affects the nerves in your brain and spinal cord. It develops when the immune system attacks the outer layer of the nerves, called the myelin sheath. The damage causes scar tissue known as “sclerosis”. Because of the sclerosis, nerve messages traveling between the brain and the rest of the body are interrupted or stop completely.
The nerve damage causes pain, numbness, tingling, and weakness in different parts of the body. It can also affect eyesight and coordination. In Relapsing-Remitting MS (RRMS), the symptoms can flare up then partly or completely disappear.
According to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (2026), nearly 1 million people in the US are living with MS. It can affect anyone, regardless of age, sex assigned at birth, or ethnicity, but is more common in women than men.
Conventional treatment for MS focuses on disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) to slow down the nerve damage and manage flare-ups. They include oral medications, intravenous drugs, and injectable medications.
The DMTs can help manage the symptoms of MS and slow down its progression. But they don’t address any of the modifiable diet and lifestyle factors that shape the development of MS. This is where regenerative medicine can help.
The Regenerative Medicine Approach
Regenerative medicine looks at the whole person, not just the condition. It includes changes to diet and lifestyle, plus targeted therapies that help your body manage inflammation and keep the immune system balanced.
MS affects the central nervous system, but because it's an autoimmune condition, it has links to nutrient levels, gut health, and how the immune system works. A whole-body approach considers all these together to give you the best possible foundation for support.
Treatments That May Help
Physical therapy
An overview of systematic reviews on rehabilitation therapies for MS found moderate-quality evidence for physical and exercise therapy (Amatya et al., 2019). The authors note that physical therapy and multidisciplinary rehabilitation can improve mobility, muscle strength, and quality of life for people with MS. They also note that more studies looking at the type and intensity of these therapies are needed.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) can help people with MS manage pain, fatigue, and the uncertainty that comes with the condition. It works alongside conventional treatments and can be done in person or online.
The research on CBT for MS is limited but promising. One well-designed study involving 105 people compared CBT with standard care for MS-related fatigue (Gay et al., 2023). At the 12-month follow-up, people who had CBT showed meaningfully better fatigue scores than those who received standard care alone.
Nutritional therapy
Researchers have been exploring the connection between MS and dietary fat intake for many years. One of the longest and most well-known studies was by Dr Roy Swank. The study followed 144 participants for 34 years as they followed Dr Swank’s low saturated fat diet. The results showed that participants eating under 20g of saturated fat a day had less disease progression, were able to maintain higher levels of physical activity, and had an overall mortality rate of 31%. Those eating higher levels of saturated fat showed a mortality rate of 81% (Swank, 1991).
However, there were serious limitations to the study and multiple systematic reviews have since shown that the evidence isn’t strong enough for the diet to become a mainstream recommendation.
The recent WAVES trial (Wahls et al., 2021) put the Swank diet side-by-side with the Wahls Elimination Diet - a modified Paleo-style diet that excludes gluten, dairy, eggs, soy, sugar, and processed foods.
The trial randomized 87 RRMS patients to either the Swank diet or the Wahls Elimination diet. Over 24 weeks, both groups saw improvement in their symptoms, but overall, the Wahls diet outperformed the Swank diet on fatigue scores and mental and physical quality of life.
The researchers point out that both diets share some common ground, and this chimes with what I see in my work as a nutritionist. Both cut out heavily processed foods and focus on plenty of vegetables, fruit, and unsaturated fats. These changes can influence what happens in the gut microbiome. Research suggests that people with MS tend to have less diversity in their gut bacteria than healthy individuals (Swidsinski et al., 2017), so it's possible that both diets may be helping by shifting the bacterial balance in a positive direction.
It's also worth considering other factors that can disrupt gut health, like food allergies and other forms of microbial imbalance, such as an overgrowth of the Candida yeast. These issues can damage the gut lining, which may trigger further immune disruption and inflammation.
Vitamin D
MS is more common in countries that are further away from the equator and typically have less sun exposure and lower levels of vitamin D (MS Society, n.d.). Vitamin D plays important roles in gene expression, immune health, and managing inflammation.
Vitamin D supplementation may benefit people with MS, but dosage is important. There is no evidence to support high-dose vitamin D as a preventative for MS, and chronic high dosing may lead to toxicity symptoms that can mimic MS progression (Feige et al., 2020).
Alpha-lipoic Acid
Alpha-lipoic acid is a natural acid found in foods and made in your body. It acts as an antioxidant and is often used to manage nerve inflammation and pain. In their meta-analysis of 5 randomized-controlled trials, Rodrigues et al. (2025) found that people with MS taking 600mg alpha-lipoic acid twice a day reduced their disability scores. It may be a beneficial therapy when used under the guidance of a healthcare provider alongside conventional treatments.
Mesenchymal stem cell transplantation therapy
Mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) transplantation therapy for MS uses stem cells from your own body to reduce inflammation and help repair the damaged nerves. MSC therapy is a promising area but isn’t a standard, approved treatment yet.
One small-scale randomized controlled trial found that MSC transplantation therapy significantly reduces treatment failure rates in progressive MS (Petrou et al., 2020). During the 1-year follow-up, 58.6% of people treated with MSCs via spinal administration (a needle injection into the spinal fluid) showed no evidence of disease activity compared with 9.7% in the sham-treated group.
What the Evidence Supports
Overall, there is good evidence to support personalized nutritional therapy, CBT, physical therapy, and vitamin D and alpha-lipoic acid supplements. These therapies can all be used alongside MS medications and conventional treatments.
Where the Evidence Is Limited
The evidence for mesenchymal stem cell transplantation is promising but limited, and larger studies are needed to confirm its benefits for MS.
Combining Treatments
Many people with MS benefit from a combination of regenerative therapies alongside their mainstream treatments. Personalised nutrition and exercise recommendations, nutrient supplements, and CBT can support energy levels, mindset, and underlying immune balance, and help you adapt and cope with changing symptoms.
Finding the Right Provider
Here are a few things to think about when looking for a regenerative treatment provider for MS:
Check they are fully insured for the treatments they offer.
Ask which professional bodies they belong to and what their Codes of Conduct or Codes of Practice are.
Check on their training and qualifications, and how they keep their skills up to date.
Get clear on treatment fees and make sure there aren’t any extra costs.
Read customer reviews on independent third-party feedback websites like Trustpilot.
If they have the right training, qualifications, insurance, and strong customer reviews, arrange a free discovery call to discuss your needs before booking a treatment.
Takeaway
MS is a lifelong autoimmune condition. Conventional treatments known as disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) can help slow down nerve degeneration and manage flare-ups. Regenerative therapies can be used alongside these DMTs to manage inflammation and fatigue and address the underlying immune imbalance. Combining these treatments offers a whole-body approach to MS care.
